This invention relates generally to electrical couplers, and more specifically, to electrical couplers capable of splitting signal inputs to an input receptacle jack to a pair of output receptacle jacks.
A rising number of increasingly complicated networked devices in voice and data communication systems presents several challenges to interconnecting the network of devices. In particular, a number of switching devices and switching equipment facilitate operation of the network, and connecting a large number of network devices to the switching devices is problematic. The switch devices and equipment are typically configured for a predetermined number of connections, and the limited capacity of the switching equipment for connections has been met. While higher capacity switching devices may be employed, replacing lower capacity yet functional switching devices with newer switching equipment is an expensive solution, and in light of the number of switching devices that exists in the network, replacing the switching equipment may not be a feasible option.
Even for existing equipment, connecting a large number of network devices to the switches can be difficult due to physical space limitations in the area proximate the switching devices and equipment. Also, as the number of connections increases, accommodation of the cables associated with the connections can become unmanageable in the vicinity of the switches. Especially in high-speed data transmission systems, these problems can become acute.
In some systems, couplers have been employed to combine two high-speed data applications in a single cable. The couplers include dual receptacle jacks connected to a single edge card connector. The edge card connector plugs into an outlet which is, in turn, coupled to the cable. When connected to the respective receptacle jacks, two networked devices (e.g., laptop PC's) running high speed data applications may be supported by a single cable, sometimes referred to as a “shared-sheath” application. While shared-sheath applications may be effective in reducing the number of cables in a network, accommodating a large number of connections to known switching devices remains problematic.